


Arrows

by GallifreyanFairytale



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, I'm Sorry, Pain, Sadness, Tears, blame the person who tweeted my inspiration for this, i miss robin hood and so does regina
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-26 01:04:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12048093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GallifreyanFairytale/pseuds/GallifreyanFairytale
Summary: Roni always loved arrows, but she could never explain why.Inspired by a tweet from politeregal





	Arrows

Roni couldn’t explain why she found inspiration in arrows. Maybe it was an aesthetic thing or maybe she had been in love with an archer in a past life, but ever since she was young, Roni had looked to arrows for comfort. It was like her own little symbol of hope.

 

Now, to be clear, Roni was _not_ , in any way, an archer. She’d once attempted archery at a summer camp, but found she was terrible at it, and hadn’t picked up a bow since. At least, not with the intent of shooting it. And no one in her family had been an archer. Her mother was against Roni’s love of arrows (or she just wasn’t very fond of it). Her father supported Roni, but he confessed he’d never held a bow in his life. And her older sister, now living off in Europe somewhere, thought Roni’s obsession with arrows was ‘weird and unnatural’.

 

Roni didn’t really mind that no one understood, though. She didn’t fully understand herself.

 

Arrows were just number one on a long list of things that inspired Roni for no reason whatsoever. Foxes, feathers, apples, anything that smelled like forest, and Robin Hood were also fairly high on the list.

 

She’d seriously considered giving her bar a name that had to do with the Robin Hood legends, but that idea got vetoed by pretty much everyone she asked for some reason. Apparently Roni was the only one in town with an inexplicable love for Robin Hood.

 

So instead, she’d just decorated her bar with arrows. No matter where you looked, there was bound to be an arrow in your line of sight. When the bar first opened, she’d gotten lots of questions about the arrows (Why so many? What did they mean? Were they a reference to a past lover?), but now it was just accepted by everyone that Roni’s was the place to go if you felt like looking at arrows or getting something to drink.

 

The first time someone asked about the arrows in several years was a mysterious stranger named Henry. Roni explained that she just liked arrows and couldn’t explain why because there was no explanation. The man gave her a sort of sad smile, like he knew why but didn’t want to say. Roni dismissed it without a second thought - she got strange people in her bar all the time.

 

When Roni finally realized why she found hope in arrows, a wave of magic had swept through the city and Roni realized she wasn’t really Roni at all; she was Regina Mills. And the arrows were all for Robin. Suddenly, everything Regina had thought and felt as Roni made sense. Arrows, foxes, apples, feathers, forest,  _ Robin Hood _ .

 

She’d been standing in the middle of a street when the curse broke and she should probably be worried about countless other things, but the pain of losing Robin had just come crashing down on her again, pushing her knees to the ground and luring tears out of her eyes. She tried to wipe the tears away, but they just kept coming back, so she eventually gave up. Regina knew the curse breaking was for the best, but at the same time, she wished she had blissfully ignorant Roni’s mind back. Because blissfully ignorant Roni had never really been in love with Robin Hood, and didn’t have to watch him die in front of her because he sacrificed himself  _ for her _ . She didn’t have to spend every waking moment with that scene haunting her, because if not for Regina, Robin would still be alive. If that stupid thief had just  _ let her die instead! _

 

Regina heard footsteps running towards her, but she didn’t have the energy or motivation to look up and see who it was. She felt a hand on her back, heard some words she didn’t bother trying to comprehend. Lucy was kneeling across from her, looking worried, trying to say something, but everything sounded as if Regina was underwater, drowning, and no one could save her.


End file.
